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9th Ave: Keith Morris

Keith Morris, cofounding member of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks reads from his memoir, My Damage.

Praise for My Damage:

"Keith Morris is a human firecracker. You can literally hear his leg kicking under the table as you rip through the pages. If his life were the bars, these words are the file hidden in the cake. He is as truthful as funny, and if you don't read this book you might as well join an REO Speedwagon cover band.”—Ryan Adams

“Even though Keith was so wasted most of the time, that nebb'd up surfer who lived on The Strand made me want to be a punk singer.”—Greg Graffin of Bad Religion

“I came late to Southern California and its Punk Rock scene, but after reading Keith Morris’s memoir, feel I was there from the start. My Damage is like Neal Cassady’s The First Third read aloud by William Burroughs for his private enjoyment: clear and unapologetic as a bell, fast as you can go, a rolling dumpster on fire, and a treasure trove for any student of West Coast Punk history. Lonely, funny, brave, tragic, anonymous, and famous all at once, until the moon disappears and everything goes to sleep. And wakes up again to dream a new song.”—Viggo Mortensen

About My Damage:

Keith Morris is a true punk icon. No one else embodies the sound of Southern Californian hardcore the way he does. With his waistlength dreadlocks and snarling vocals, Morris is known the world over for his take-no-prisoners approach on the stage and his integrity off of it. Over the course of his forty-year career with Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and OFF , he's battled diabetes, drug and alcohol addiction, and the record industry...and he's still going strong.

My Damage is more than a book about the highs and lows of a punk rock legend. It's a story from the perspective of someone who has shared the stage with just about every major figure in the music industry and has appeared in cult films like The Decline of Western Civilization and Repo Man. A true Hollywood tale from an L.A. native, My Damage reveals the story of Morris's streets, his scene, and his musicas only he can tell it.

Keith Morris is a true punk icon. No one else embodies the sound of Southern Californian hardcore the way he does. With his waist-length dreadlocks and snarling vocals, Morris is known the world over for his take-no-prisoners approach on the stage and his integrity off of it.